I have no idea where my interests in classical Chinese medicine are going to take me. I know I want to be a clinician, not just an academic. I, too, studied philosophy and the history of ideas as an undergraduate, and I began my study of Taoist and Buddhist texts back then. (A long time ago, as I’m older by a generation than most of you students.) I just know that I will be happiest if I follow my destiny, and for me that includes some scholarship. I know it includes treating and learning from patients. Their humanity moves me, and I know I must always have one foot in clinical practice. The academic life is pretty isolated from real life otherwise, and therefore, for me it isn’t that gratifying.

I am at heart a philosopher, as well as an artist (I was an opera singer for 25 years). I am a healer, too. And I am a spiritual seeker. So I hope that all of these can combine into one career, though it may require cobbling together several careers.

I am learning to go with the flow, to recognize opportunities as they arise, and to make the most of them. This is important if you want to follow the Tao, if you want to find your true destiny.

So, to all of you out there who are seeking and for whom the beauty and depth of classical Chinese medicine nearly takes your breath away at times, I wish for your continued evolution into your truest self so that this medicine can blossom in the West that goes beyond its greatest flowerings through the ages in China. (Sorry if the language seems excessive. This medicine makes me feel expansive, and calls to something so deep that it’s hard to say what I want to say without becoming poetic. I’m pretty sure you all know what I mean.)